The greening of technology and the move to sustainability is by no means limited to North America and Europe. In fact in a recent blog entry, Rich points out that The Viet Nam Cleaner Production Center and the Swiss government have signed a $5 million contract to establish the Green Credit Trust Fund in Viet Nam.
According the announcement:
Switzerland will sponsor the program’s initial development. The fund will be used to grant low interest loans for companies looking to buy modern, environmentally friendly technologies to up production.
Well, add Bahrain to the list of nations making the transition to green.
According to Jean Paul Carteron, chairman and founder of Crans Montana Forum, Bahrain has the financial wherewithal and the political will to become a leading green location by preserving environment and setting a new trend for a sustainable economic and financial developments.
Said Carteron:
“Clean technology is major concern in the world and the strategists view economic development in the perspective of profitable clean environment.”

SustainableBusiness.com announced its 2007 Sustainable Business 20 (SB20) List, which comprises the World’s Top Sustainable Stocks in their view.
According to the SustainableBuisiness.com Web site:
The SB20 list, in its sixth year, consists of 20 public companies that are having an important impact on creating an environmentally sustainable society.
Rona Fried, Ph.D., SustainableBusiness.com CEO and Editor of Progressive Investor, explained the reasoning for the list in a recent statement.
“Our goal is to create a list that showcases public companies that, over the past year, have made substantial progress in either greening their internal operations or growing a business based on an important green technology.”
The list of the SB20 is presented below, with companies appearing in Alphabetical order. It should be noted that this list is made up of a broad international group of companies, which is illustrative of the fact that green innovation is a truly global phenomenon.
On another note, Google was given an honorable mention, so one might consider them the 21st such company on the SustainableBusiness.com list.
CompanyTickerCountry
Best Water Technology
Vienna: BWT.VI
Austria
Canon
NYSE: CAJ
Japan
Comverge
Nasdaq: COMV
USA
Chipotle Mexican Grill
NYSE: CMG
USA
First Solar
Nasdaq: FSLR
USA
Fuel Tech
Nasdaq: FTEK
USA
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
Nasdaq: GMCR
USA
Groupe Danone
DANO.PA
Netherlands
Herman Miller
Nasdaq: MLHR
USA
Interface
Nasdaq: IFSIA
USA
Land Securities
London: Land.L
Britain
NIKE, Inc.
NYSE: NKE
USA
Novozymes
Copenhagen: NZYM.CO
Denmark
Ormat Technologies
NYSE: ORA
USA
Precious Woods
Geneva: SWX: PRWN
Switzerland
Renewable Energy Corp. (REC)
Oslo: REC.OL
Norway
Royal Philips Electronics NV
NYSE: PHG
Netherlands
Schmack Biogas AG
Germany: SB1B.DE
Germany
Vestas
Copenhagen: VWS.CO
Denmark
Whole Foods Market
Nasdaq: WFMI
USA

Before you toss that old cell phone, television, stereo equipment or computer in the trash, stop, wait and think a minute.

Can it be recycled?

You bet it can. Maybe not the whole thing … but at least parts of it … all you have to do is get it to the right location. Items such as computers, stereos, TVs, mobile phones and home appliances can very often be refurbished and reused (for example, many consumers throw away fully functional computers, mobile phones and other electronics during upgrades). Perhaps more importantly, their parts can be recycled and made into new electronics components or other consumer products.

CommuniClique, a provider of on-demand collaboration services using VoIP and other communication tools, realizes that for every person who telecommutes to work each day, there is one less car burning fossil fuel on the highway. Similarly, this environmentally conscious company realizes if you increase the number of hybrids on the road, air pollution can be reduced even further.

As such, CommuniClique is giving away a Hybrid Saturn Aura-Green in late September to its 3,000th customer. The company is doing this in the hopes that it can influence its customers “to make more environmentally friendly decisions when it comes to business applications.”

CommuniClique’s IP-based conferencing solutions enable the “virtual office,” where managers and executives can collaborate in real time, no matter where they are located. The service lets users communicate via secure, Web-based VoIP on a “pay-as-you-go” basis.

I was perusing the Yahoo! Green Center and for the life of me I cannot understand why Honda and Toyota consistently beat American car companies when it comes to styling, innovation and now being green. The top four cars in terms of greenness are as follows:
CarGreenness(100 is best)2007 Honda Civic Hybrid
86
2007 Toyota Prius
86
2007 Honda Civic GX NGV
85
2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid
79
I just get the feeling the American car companies are just too macho to be the greenest. Well at least Ford has a great green hybrid SUV… The 2008 Escape at 34 MPG.